News
World

Boston Marathon bombing: Did delay in releasing images give them time to flee north?

Investigators search for evidence on the rooftop of a building located above the site of a bomb blast on Boylston Street two-days after multiple explosions at the Boston Marathon killed three and injured 176 in Boston, Massachusetts April 17, 2013. Investigators believe they have identified a suspect in the Boston marathon bombing from security video, a U.S. law enforcement source said. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

Related Videos

Just how big could this orchestrated bombing conspiracy at the Boston Marathon actually be?

As FBI Agent Richard DesLauriers said, there is Suspect 1 and Suspect 2.

Could there be even more involved who were not on camera and perhaps aided and abetted?

To this point, the FBI have identified two potential suspects and who knows where it will lead.

Certainly these pictures from video surveillance are not innocuous and have provided good likenesses and profiles.

But the FBI offered no descriptions: No skin or eye colour, height or weight.

Still it won’t be easy to stay under the radar.

Just how far away can these two suspects get when the whole world has their images?

How long before somebody recognizes them as someone they know?

People here are anxious for another news conference to announce arrests.

But if there is not a quick arrest, the big question will have to be why did the FBI wait for 29 hours to release these pictures?

We know that they had at least one of them and I was told by police they had both.

Could it have given more time for people on the lam to travel north to cross the border to Canada?

Could they have boarded a plane abroad like Luka Magnotta did?

So why the FBI delay?

President Barack Obama delivered a compassionate speech at the interfaith service here and comforted people who are victims of the bombing.

Did the FBI put things on hold until after the political activities were completed?

It was just five minutes after Obama stepped onto Air Force One at Boston’s Logan Airport that the FBI tweeted that it would hold a 5 p.m. news conference where they revealed evidence they had a day earlier.

Even Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was quoted hours before saying they need “help” from the public to identify the persons of interest in these photographs.

They postponed three press briefings Wednesday without explanation.

No one, so far, in the FBI has explained why it is they held back information that could have provided suspects they call “armed and extremely dangerous” a head start on their potential escape.

And the atmosphere on the street has changed since the identification of these suspects to one of more mistrust. People are starting to stare at people when they walk by them and study their bags.

It’s a surreal, tense atmosphere here. It’s not lost on people there are some serious homicidal criminals at large.

And even with thousands of witnesses, cameras and just as many law enforcement professionals on the hunt, there are no apparent answers.

Could this be a domestic operation like in Oklahoma City? Does it have an international terror component to it?

Or both?

Perhaps it will become clearer in time.

What is known is there is a manhunt underway and there are no two people more wanted than the pair captured in the video showing them with their bags going into the bombing area just minutes before the explosions.

We don’t know who they are or what they represent.

However what we do know is they were able to pull this off — killing three and wounded dozens of others — and have managed to remain free four days removed from the murderous event that has shook so many.

So many unanswered questions. So many possibilities.

One thing that is for sure is this: Somebody knows who these two men are. Somebody can put names to these faces.